Lubrication is an important aspect of maintaining machinery in proper operating condition. Machine elements such as bearings, journals, shafts, and joints require lubrication between moving surfaces to decrease friction, prevent contamination, reduce wear and dissipate heat. In some cases, improper lubrication has the potential to result in premature component wear. Accordingly, gas turbine engines include lubrication systems to maintain a flow of a suitable lubricant through the engine, including in the turbines or gearboxes. In most lubrication systems, a supply pump feeds the lubricant from a reservoir through a supply conduit to a nozzle device that sprays the lubricant onto the elements to be lubricated, and a return pump directs lubricant collected in a sump back into the reservoir to repeat the flow circuit.
Over time and particularly at high temperature operation, some of the lubricant may undergo a coking process in which solids are formed and deposited in the lubrication system. At times, coking may result in blockages in the nozzles, which if unaddressed, may impede lubricant from properly flowing through the system. Typically, this issue is evaluated according to a maintenance schedule when the engine is offline. Generally, conventional systems do not have a mechanism for detecting nozzle blockage during operation.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a lubrication system with a nozzle blockage detection system that indicates potential blockage issues within the lubrication system, particularly during operation of the associated engine. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.